


The Storm

by NebulousMistress



Series: The Shadow Over Atlantis [4]
Category: Cthulhu Mythos - Fandom, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 07:51:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6745633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulousMistress/pseuds/NebulousMistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new planet, a new ocean, a new doctor. Set early season 4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Storm

A new planet, a new ocean. New storms to pound against the piers, new waves to reach long wet arms up toward the balcony, new moods, new currents, new gyres.

A new sun glowing large and orange in the sky. Plants evolving on the mainland, dropping leaves, fixing new metals into chlorophyll analogues. A aged sun, puffed and orange. Red. Soon to be red. Angry. New moods, like the sea. Warm seas giving birth to great storms, giant hurricane eyes large enough to fit the entire city.

A new doctor. Someone new to thumb through Carson's notes, to read and postulate and decide without ever comprehending, without even talking to him first. A decision made, fear reigned far beyond the bounds of logic. Fear of the unknown, the known, the unknowable. Silly, really, that he should be feared while the Wraith feed, the Asurans maraud, the Genii plot, and the rest of the galaxies conspire against them.

Silly indeed.

But...

Dr. Rodney McKay could not blame her, not really. After all, he felt that same fear.

*****

The sea was going through one of her moods today. She crashed lustily at the piers of Atlantis, reaching long wet arms at her spires in a futile attempt to bring them down into her embrace. She got this way sometimes, calling, crying. She was why Rodney never slept much anymore.  
  
Rodney lay in bed, curled around himself as if to try and block her voice from his mind. In a clear darkness he traced the scars between his fingers. Dream images clung to his mind, images of Atlantis sunken beneath the angry waves, of her corridors flooded and alive with himself and his kin. Of an Atlantis finally at home within waters that the Ancients and later the humans had tried so very hard to keep at bay.  
  
It would be so easy...  
  
Rodney threw himself off the bed with a shudder of disgust. Y'ha-nthlei was in a whole other _galaxy_ , it just wasn't fair that he'd be getting the dreams all the way out here. Clothes were found and Rodney lost himself in the city.  
  
Or tried to. His bare feet brought him to the nearly empty mess hall. The scent of coffee lured him to food, food lured him to the only occupied table at this unholy hour.  
  
"Somehow I figured more people would be kept awake," Rodney said in way of greeting as he sat down across from Dr. Keller. "By the storm, I mean."  
  
Jennifer shrugged and sipped her own mug. "I suppose people are getting used to an angry ocean," she said.  
  
"Not angry, horny," Rodney muttered before taking a bite of sandwich.  
  
"You'd be the one to know, wouldn't you?" Jennifer asked before she could stop herself. She cringed and bit her lip, unable to look him in the eye. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."  
  
Rodney put his sandwich down and pushed his tray away in a significant gesture. "Yes it was," he agreed, voice carefully neutral. A silence stretched between them, thick and oppressive.  
  
"So... how are things?" Jennifer asked.  
  
"How do you think?" Rodney snapped, falling into a whole rant. "I'm trapped here in the middle of the ocean, slowly mutating into a giant seafaring **toad** while surrounded by people who are watching every stage of my Change without knowing what it is and I can't tell them 'cause they'll shoot me if I do. Not even my own sister knows because Dad's Change drove him to commit suicide and I only know because of Miskatonic and the dreams and guess what? The dreams are back and I have no idea why or especially **how** because last time I checked R'lyeh was three _million_ light years away and how in hell can telepathy not penetrate the Pacific Ocean but still reach this damned far?!" He took a breath and let it fall flat.  
  
"Feel better?" she asked.  
  
"No," he whined in a small voice. A scarred, scaling hand reached for his tray and returned with coffee which Rodney sipped to calm his nerves. "I never wanted this, you know," he said quietly.  
  
"I know."

His eyes fell closed as he sipped, could still hear the pounding waves even here in the city center. How did the Ancients ever sleep? How do the Marines? Or maybe he was the only one...

Great Mother he needed a bath. Preferably not alone. Maybe Zelenka would be awake?

"The dreams are back?" Keller asked.  
  
Rodney pretended not to hear her, instead focusing on more important matters, such as the contents of her mug. "Where did you get hot chocolate?" Rodney asked.  
  
"Private stash," she said. "Don't change the subject. You. Dreams. They're back? When?"  
  
"And exactly how private is this stash?" he asked. At her glare Rodney shrank down a bit. "Past few days," he admitted quietly. “Ever since the storm began.”  
  
"What would these dreams be?” she asked. “I'm not familiar with Deep One dreams. Is it like the stories? Cthulhu at R'lyeh? Family members greeting you underwater?"  
  
Rodney closed his eyes, shuddered, and gave a quick shake of his head. "Atlantis," he murmured. "Underwater. Claimed. Mine." He opened big blue eyes, emphasizing the slide of nictitating membranes across shining predatory eyes as he looked at her. He noted her poorly concealed shudder.  
  
"I'm sure it's just dreams," she said, impressed at the lack of a waver in her own voice. "Brought on by the... horny seas."  
  
Rodney rolled his eyes. He didn't believe it any more than she did.  
  
"Not buying it either?" she said ruefully. She answered his snort with one of her own. "Still, maybe they'll die down a bit when the storm calms."  
  
"Maybe," he agreed. He hoped.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Wraithbait under a different name and a different title. This was once the story that began the entire AU.


End file.
